Page 155 of Centaur Bolt

And Kiko laughed. “Oh, yes, they do. That’s the problem. They just think they can spit in Fate’s face, and get their way.”

Vali leaned close, and I’d never seen such intensity in her expression. “You must fight for them,” she said. “No matter what. Because if you lose them—there will be a hole inside you that can never be filled.” Her mouth twisted. “Never.”

Kiko reached out and folded a hand around Vali’s arm. The Dragona’s face spasmed, and she rose, pacing a few feet away. I stared after her, my heart thudding erratically.

I looked to Kiko. “How do I fight for them if they are so resistant?” I didn’t expect an answer, but she gave me one.

“I’ll let you in on a secret.” She leaned in close.

“What is it?” I whispered.

She beamed at me. “They call Fate a bitch for a reason. And she’s on your side.”

54

Marcus

Returning home wasn’t quite what I’d hoped it would be.

As I strode through the colony, most greeted me warmly, making the effort to not drop their gaze to my human legs. Once past me, they whispered to their friends, glancing back.

It had been a very long time since my kind shifted between two forms—human, and equine. So long, in fact, that the possibility had almost become a myth. Since coming to this colony as a youngling, I’d grown up with many of the Centaurs here.

To them, however, I was now an oddity. My face was familiar. My form was not. I was no longer a Centaur.

They just need time to adjust,Iskar soothed.Fitting into the colony again is not the true issue here.

I wasn’t interested in another lecture about going back to the academy. Instead, I nodded to an elderly Centaurina as I crossed the street, heading for the school. Her eyes widened before she smiled tentatively back.

My mother should be almost on break… I entered the school and after a bit of a search, found her still in the classroom, surrounded by younglings. A younger Centaurina stood with her, a book tucked in her arms. I paused in the shadows of the hall, not certain I wished to be noticed by all those bright young eyes.

“What are you reading to them today, Bree?” my mother asked.

Bree was younger than me and pretty in an exotic kind of way—she didn’t have as many tattoos as her friends, but the design across her chest was written in an ancient Centaur language, and it meant death and rebirth. She had a knife on one arm and a serpent on the other. It wasn’t unusual for our people to have ink, but they weren’t often themed so dark.

She beamed at my mother, but didn’t quite meet her eyes.

“Today, I selected a section in this book,” she said. “It’s about the Carackian Flood, and how it restored the land.”

Triss tapped her chin with a long finger. “Didn’t that wipe out all the villages along the river?”

Bree nodded. “Yes, but the land afterward recovered a lot of its former beauty when the settlers did not rebuild. I thought it was a good lesson in how nature recovers if given a chance to do so.”

My mother didn’t seem very sure. “Your story last week gave some of the students nightmares. The parents complained.”

Bree frowned. “They should be taught that many areas in the realms need help,” she said. “That they can make a difference.”

“They are only children, Bree. Remember that, and keep the stories lighter. You don’t need to hammer it home to make your point.”

“Yes, Ma’am,” the younger Centaurina said, but her dark eyes reflected her reluctance.

Then a youngling at her feet glanced my way, and her face lit right up. “Marcus?”

It was Tuli, one of my cousins. As she ran to me with open arms, I took a deep breath and stepped into the room.

Tuli folded her arms around me in an enthusiastic hug. I hugged her back and then turned to see that all conversation had ceased as I became the focus of seventeen sets of bright eyes.

Eyes that invariably fixated below my waist—and not for any reason that I could appreciate.

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